Career
Career 2002–05 Starting at the age of eight, Hudgens performed in musical theater as a singer, and appeared in local productions of Carousel, The Wizard of Oz, The King and I, The Music Man, and Cinderella, among others.14 Two years after her career in stage plays and musicals, she started auditioning for commercials and television shows, and her family moved to Los Angeles after she won a role in a television commercial. Her acting career started at the age of 15, and she briefly attended Orange County High School of the Arts, followed by homeschooling with tutors. Hudgens had her first acting role in an episode of the sitcom Still Standing, in which she portrayed Tiffany. Following her appearance on the series, she guest starred in an episode of the series Robbery Homicide Division, airing on CBS in 2002. 2003 saw Hudgens making her theatrical debut in the 2003 drama film Thirteen, in which she had the supporting role of Noel. The film, which revolved around teenager Tracy trying to fit in and getting caught up in the wrong crowd, was somewhat of a commercial success, grossing $10 million worldwide. Despite its minor commercial success, the film received positive critical reviews. It has an 82% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and USA Today called Thirteen the most "powerful of all recent wayward-youth sagas". Hudgens subsequently landed a role in the 2004 science fiction-adventure film Thunderbirds, based on the television series of the same name. Hudgens portrayed the character of Tin-tin. The film was a commercial failure and was strongly criticized for "abandoning the original concepts". 2006-2008 In 2005, Hudgens was awarded the lead role of Gabriella Montez in the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical. The film saw Hudgens' portraying the new girl at high school who falls for the captain of the basketball team. The two later reveal a passion for singing, and audition for the school play together. Hudgens starred alongside Zac Efron and Ashley Tisdale in the film,the former of which she was partnered up with during the auditioning process due to their "chemistry". The film, released on January 20, 2006, was both a critical and commercial success. High School Musical was Disney Channel's most watched film that year with 7.7 million viewers in its premiere broadcast in the US, until August's premiere of The Cheetah Girls 2, which achieved 8.1 million viewers. In the UK, it received 789,000 viewers for its premiere (and 1.2 million viewers overall during the first week), making it the second most watched program for the Disney Channel (UK) of 2006. On December 29, 2006, it became the first Disney Channel Original Movie to be broadcast on the BBC. For the film, Hudgens recorded numerous songs which had commercial success. The song "Breaking Free", a duet with Zac Efron, went on to become Hudgens' only Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 to date, when it peaked at number 4 on the chart. The song also reached number 9 in the UK, her highest chart entry in the country. Following the success of the film, Hudgens began work on her debut album. The project, later revealed to be titled V, was released on September 26, 2006. The album sold 34,000 copies in its first week of release, and debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 chart in the US. In February 2007, the album was certified Gold by RIAA. As August 2009, the album has sold 570,000 copies in the United States. It was preceded by two singles, "Come Back to Me" and "Say OK", both of which were slightly successful in numerous countries. Both singles received heavy promotion on Disney Channel, with the music videos for both premiering on the channel. In 2007, work on the second film in the High School Musical series began, and Hudgens was confirmed to be returning for the sequel. High School Musical 2 was released on August 17, 2007. The premiere was seen by a total of over 17.2 million viewers in the United States which is almost 10 million more than its predecessor, making it the highest-rated Disney Channel Movie of all time. Disney Channel aired a weekly program called Road to High School Musical 2, beginning on June 8, 2007, and leading up to the premiere of High School Musical 2 in August. The show offered viewers a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the movie. The world premiere of the opening number "What Time Is It" was on Radio Disney May 25, 2007, and similarly "You Are The Music In Me" premiered on July 13, 2007. The film was generally well received by critics, gaining a score of 77/100 at Metacritic,while it received a generally mixed response of 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. USA Today's Robert Bianco awarded the film three stars out of four, saying High School Musical 2 was "sweet, smart, bursting with talent and energy, and awash in innocence". While critics enjoyed the film, they noted that the timing of the movie's premiere seemed odd, premiering just when school was about to start up again, while the movie's plot involved the gang going on summer Vacation. High School Musical 2 won the "So Hot Right Now" award at the Nickelodeon Australian Kids' Choice Awards 2007 in which High School Musical cast mate, Zac Efron hosted with The Veronicas. In 2007, Hudgens began work on her second studio album, partly due to the success of the High School Musical franchise. Her second studio album, Identified, was released on July 1, 2008. It sold 22,000 copies in its first week of release, 12,000 less than that of her previous effort. Despite the drop in sales, the album debuted at number 23, one spot higher than V. The album was preceded by one single, "Sneakernight", which was her lowest performing single in the US to date. It was a success on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart in the US, where it peaked at number 8. Following the commercial failure of the album, it was announced that Hudgens had parted ways with Hollywood Records. As of 2012, a new record label has not been announced, and no new album has been confirmed. Hudgens went on to reprise her role as Gabriella in the 2008 sequel High School Musical 3: Senior Year, the first film from the franchise to be released theatrically. Released on October 24, 2008, the film was a major success. The film earned $16 million on the Friday of its release, debuting at #1 (beating out Saw V in box office earnings) with a total opening weekend of over $42,030,184 in the United States and breaking the record, previously held by Mamma Mia!, for the biggest ever opening for a movie musical. The film also opened at #1 overseas, with an international opening of $40,000,000. High School Musical 3: Senior Year made $90,559,416 domestically and $162,349,761 in other territories leading to a total of $252,909,177 worldwide, which was above even Disney's expectations. 2009–11 Following the completion of the High School Musical series, Hudgens confirmed she would like to take a break from her music career to focus more on acting. In 2009, it was confirmed that Hudgens had signed on to do a new movie, slated for a 2009 released date. She played a supporting role in a musical comedy Bandslam, which was released theatrically on August 14, 2009. Hudgens plays "Sa5m", a 15-year-old awkward freshman with untapped talents. Although Bandslam was commercially unsuccessful, Hudgens's performance received praise from critics. David Waddington of the North Wales Pioneer noted that Hudgens "outshines the rest of the cast, failing to fit in with the outcast narrative and making the inevitable climactic ending all the more expected,and Philip French of The Guardian compared her acting to Thandie Newton and Dorothy Parker. Hudgens made a return to theater productions and starred in the musical Rent as Mimi. The stage production ran from August 6–8, 2010 at the Hollywood Bowl.Her involvement in the production drew negative comments, but director Neil Patrick Harris defended his decision with casting Hudgens by saying, "Vanessa Hudgens is awesome. She's a friend. I asked her to come in and sing to make sure she had the chops for it. And she was very committed and seemed great." Hudgens went on to sign for two more movies in 2011. Hudgens' involvement in Beastly, a film based on Alex Flinn's novel of the same name, was announced in early 2009. She played one of the main characters in the film, Linda Taylor. Hudgens described her as, "...the "beauty" of the story but not the stereotypical beauty everyone thinks of." Along with Beastly co-star, Alex Pettyfer, Hudgens was recognized as ShoWest stars of Tomorrow. Beastly, which also starred Mary-Kate Olsen, was released on March 4, 2011. Beastly received mostly negative reviews, earning a 20% approval rating from Rottentomatoes.com from 89 reviews, with an average rating of 3.7/10. It was ranked #45 in The Times‍ ' predicted "50 Biggest Movies of 2010". The film was screened at ShoWest and it drew enthusiastic reactions from the luncheon crowd of exhibition officials. The film went on to make $28 million worldwide as of 2012. Hudgens also appeared in the action film Sucker Punch, alongside Emily Browning. She played Blondie, an institutionalized girl in an asylum. The film was released in March 2011. Sucker Punch grossed $19,058,199 in its first weekend, an opening that placed it second behind Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules. It also opened in 23 markets that weekend, standing at sixth in the overseas box office with $6.5 million. The following weekend, it dropped to seventh place in North America with $6 million,but fared better overseas, where an expansion to 16 more countries led to a $11.5 million gross which topped the international ranking. Sucker Punch has so far grossed $36,392,502 domestically and $53,400,000 abroad, leading to a worldwide total of $89,792,502. Though the film's content was derided, the film received some recognition for the visual effects of the fantasy sequences. Sucker Punch received a nomination at the 2011 Scream Awards for Best F/X, and its stunt work was nominated for a Taurus Award. Sucker Punch was released on June 28, 2011 on DVD and in a Blu-ray combo pack. An R-rated extended cut was included on the Blu-ray release, which adds 18 minutes to the film. The bonus features include four animated shorts based on the four fantasy scenarios 2012–present In October 2010, Hudgens joined the cast of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the sequel to the 2008 film Journey to the Center of the Earth, alongside Dwayne Johnson and Josh Hutcherson, playing Hutcherson's love interest. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island earned $103,836,147 in North America and $222,000,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $325,860,290. It has surpassed its predecessor in both domestic and worldwide earnings. In North America, the film earned a $6.54 million on its debut Friday, ranking fourth at the box office. Over the weekend, it earned $27.3 million coming in third place. That was much higher than the original's $21.0 million debut. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island has received generally mixed to negative reviews from critics. It holds a "rotten" rating of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 119 reviews and an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus is: "Aggressively unambitious, Journey 2 might thrill teen viewers, but most others will find it too intense for young audiences and too cartoonishly dull for adults". Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 41 based on 27 reviews. In November 2011, Hudgens announced on her official website that she would be starring with Selena Gomez and James Franco in Spring Breakers. The film followed four college-aged girls who decide to rob a fast food restaurant in order to pay for their spring break. It was released theatrically in March 2013, receiving generally positive reviews.The film featured mature themes such as drug use, sexual escapades, and violence. To coincide with the film, Hudgens later released the dubstep influenced song "$$$ex", with a music video featuring clips from the film.The song features guest vocals from YLA, and was produced by Rock Mafia. In April 2011, it was reported that she would star in Gimme Shelter with Brendan Fraser, a film written and directed by Ron Krauss. Hudgens also plays Cindy Paulson in The Frozen Ground, a film based on the Robert Hansen case wherein she plays as his only victim who escaped. She co-stars with John Cusack and Nicolas Cage. It was announced on Wednesday, Sept. 10, that Hudgens will return to Broadway to take on the title role in the new production of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe's Gigi, which will play at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., from Jan. 16 to Feb. 12 ahead of a planned 2015 Broadway run. Hudgens told Flaunt that she is currently recording new music in August 2014. Hudgens would star in the coveted role of Rizzo in Fox's live broadcast of Grease, based on the original Broadway musical